Why caloric surplus when bulking? Why not simply protein surplus?

[Riva87]

When I mean bulking I mean lean muscles.

(1) As the title suggests why not simply 'call' it a protein surplus? (2) Or when gaining is a surplus of all nutrients carb, fats, proteins required?
(3) i'm trying to bulk up. Started 7 months ago at 75 kg went upto 78 kg but realized I was gaining beautiful love handles, so started reducing the carb intake, while increasing the protein intake and started taking 2 small inbetween meals in addition to the 3 big ones. Then I nicely started losing my lovehandles. So the questions is should I not cut down on my excess carbs considering my goals of gaining lean mass without fat?
(4) should I eat away like a pig and shed my excess weight with cardio/hiit?

[MrBillson]

If you started losing fat then that means you stopped bulking and started cutting.

[Muuuse]

Surely a protein surplus is the same as a calorie surplus?

[MrBillson]

Surely a protein surplus is the same as a calorie surplus?

No. A calorie is a unit of energy, so when you have a calorie surplus it means you are taking in more energy than you are using.

After protein minimums are met, all your body is doing with the extra protein is utilising the calories you get from it.

The only way the OP would make any sense is if you were eating so much protein that it put you into a calorie surplus, but then it would still be a calorie surplus - not a protein surplus.

[rob2093124]

Your body doesn't necessarily want to build muscle. It's not its first priority. If you eat 400g protein alone, you will not gain any weight (unless your metabolism is severely screwed). Your body will convert this protein to glucose for energy.

Now given a more reasonable explanation, if you are not exceeding your TDEE, your body still is not getting the amount of energy(calories) needed to perform the actions needed for the day, so some protein will be converted to glucose for energy. By providing an overall surplus, you are sparing the protein to be used for muscle growth. This is why carbs and fats are said to be "protein-sparing".

[Muuuse]

No. A calorie is a unit of energy, so when you have a calorie surplus it means you are taking in more energy than you are using.

After protein minimums are met, all your body is doing with the extra protein is utilising the calories you get from it.

The only way the OP would make any sense is if you were eating so much protein that it put you into a calorie surplus, but then it would still be a calorie surplus - not a protein surplus.

Yeh, my bad. I didn't read OP's post. I thought he meant it as if he was to eat over his maintenance calories with only protein.

[Murdok1741]

Answers below in bold.

When I mean bulking I mean lean muscles.

(1) As the title suggests why not simply 'call' it a protein surplus? (2) Or when gaining is a surplus of all nutrients carb, fats, proteins required?
A calorie surplus is what is necessary to gain weight. If you get it from solely protein (theoretically speaking), you'd very likely have quite a few nutrient deficiencies that will ultimately affect your exercise performance (not to mention quite a few other negative effects). It's far more ideal to get the excess calories from a combination of protein/carb/fat.


(3) i'm trying to bulk up. Started 7 months ago at 75 kg went upto 78 kg but realized I was gaining beautiful love handles, so started reducing the carb intake, while increasing the protein intake and started taking 2 small inbetween meals in addition to the 3 big ones. Then I nicely started losing my lovehandles. So the questions is should I not cut down on my excess carbs considering my goals of gaining lean mass without fat?
The increase and decrease in weight are due to calorie surplus and deficit, respectively, at different times. The goal when attempting to put on muscle mass is to go about it rather slowly so as to limit fat gain. I find it hard to believe you went from 75kg to 78kg in 7 months and "love handles" appeared for the first time. You likely already had them and then more fat simply accumulated there. Also, we have no idea what your training program looks like, so I can't comment much here.


(4) should I eat away like a pig and shed my excess weight with cardio/hiit?
Not sure exactly what you're asking. You should not eat like a pig when you're trying to gain weight (unless your metabolism is freakishly fast), and shedding weight happens in a caloric deficit. Cardio/HIIT are simply tools to help reach that deficit